Wednesday, August 24, 2011

2011 Streak Day 210/365 (July 29): Every day

This is the pattern: one day at my normal pace followed by a day running with my wife at a slightly easier pace. The different intensities should mean I can run for everyday this holiday - something I have never done before.

I know all the hard core Athoners who run every day for a month and would treat a running streak of a couple of weeks with withering disdain but it has always been my philosophy to have breaks. My 2011 Streak is based on variety, to use muscles in different ways and to mix hard and easy days. I am convinced that repeating the same thing to often leads to staleness. So I have never before tried to run everyday for any period of time.

But this is a holiday challenge not a training programme. If I was being sensible I would be purposefully building up for the Folkestone half marathon, instead I am only planning to plod more consistently.

Today’s picture comes from an outing to Jarnac, where we took a boat trip along the Charante. Jarnac is the next town upriver from Cognac and the home of Courvoisier, Hine, and Royer cognacs. As we chugged along the great green Charante these houses were pointed out along with much else but my main reaction was to let it all float by and enjoy the beauty of the river and its wooded banks.

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My project for 2014 is to try to record small, fleeting moments of pleasure. The sort of thing that makes you inwardly smile but is then quickly forgotten. I want to prove that my default setting is not really miserablist.

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About This Blog

When I started in 2005 the aim was to explore my fascination with running and the way something so simple and repetitious could be so satisfying. How can something with real purpose enhance your own sense of purpose? How can basic exercise make you feel more connected?

Taking my inspiration from the famous saying of George Sheehan that runners are an experiment of one, I have tried to record my experiences to help me make sense of what I am doing and hope that others might recognise something of themselves in my struggles

Over time the subject matter has stretched to include cycling and walking, so sometimes it is more about being out and about around Hemel Hempstead (my home town) than the satisfactions of running. I am also started to cover issues surrounding exercise and public health. This seems quite a natural extension: if I am writing about how exercise enhances my own life, I also want to find out why that simple insight is not more widely shared.

About Me

I have no idea why I hide behind this alias but it is a Townes Van Zandt song and that will have to be reason enough.
Other than that I am a middle-aged (verging on the ancient), non-competitive (ie slow) runner.
There is nothing special about what i do. I just write about it